Simon Hunter
FIVE people were arrested in the Madrid neighbourhood of Puente de Vallecas on Sunday, after they attacked a stand belonging to the far-right Vox party at the local fiestas.
A police spokesperson told news agency Europa Press that the group had thrown chairs at the campaigning point as well as throwing punches at the people manning it.
The incident took place at around 1.10pm on Sunday, in the area next to the ground belonging to local football team Rayo Vallecano.
A number of men started to insult the members of the Vox party, before the incident turned violent.
Three men and two women aged between 20 and 53 years old were left with mild injuries and were attended to by an ambulance crew.
The men arrested were aged between 29 and 43.
Vallecas is a working-class neighbourhood that is famous for its leftist principles. Vox, meanwhile, is Spain’s far-right party and espouses policies that are anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ+ rights, among others.
Rocio Monasterio, a Vox politician, took to Twitter to denounce the treatment received by the party campaigners both in Vallecas and elsewhere in the run-up to the July 23 general election.
“It’s intolerable that a party like Vox cannot set up a stand at local fiestas without suffering assaults,” she wrote. “A vote for Vox is now about defending basic freedoms, the right to disagree, the right to express ideas without being attacked.
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